1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a chip comprising a microchannel and a method for manufacturing the same.
2. Description of Related Art
Glass is an example of a typical material used for capillary electrophoresis or microchannel electrophoresis. However, a capillary or microchannel chip formed of glass has not been used widely in the field of clinical laboratory testing, since such a chip is expensive and requires complex processes, chemical modifications, and careful handling, for example. For solving these problems, there have been attempts to manufacture microchannel chips of resin. In general, the microchannel chip is formed by preparing a resin part provided with a micro-structure on its surface and joining the resin part with another resin part that serves as a covering. However, the conventional joining method that uses adhesives or heat sealing may cause problems. For example, the microchannel may be buried/covered or deformed.
JP 2008-19348 describes a method (Method-1) of irradiating resin surfaces with ultraviolet rays and heat-pressing the irradiated surfaces together. The document describes further a method (Method-2) of irradiating the resin surfaces with ultraviolet rays and then treating with a silane coupling agent so as to heat-press the treated surfaces together. JP 2005-249572 describes a method (Method-3) of forming a polymer film after masking the surfaces to be joined except for the micro-structure and then detaching the masking for joining the surfaces. JP 2009-145245 describes a method (Method-4) of forming in advance a microchannel and then fixing a cationic functional group to an inner wall of the channel. JP 2012-132894 describes a method (Method-5) of joining resins by a covalent bond via a crosslinking agent so as to expose a cationic functional group of the crosslinking agent on a microchannel surface.